March 06, 2014

Canada: Reaction to WHO's new sugar guidelines

If you drink a single can of pop a day, you’re consuming too much sugar.

That is the message from the World Health Organization, which on Wednesday unveiled new draft guidelines that say reducing sugar consumption to just 5 per cent of calories is the best way to achieve “additional health benefits.” The global public-health agency also renewed its call for governments around the world to recommend a firm limit of no more than 10 per cent of calories per day from sugar, a call Ottawa is so far refusing to heed.

The Canadian government is already under increasing pressure from health organizations to set guidelines on sugar consumption following the release of a study published last month in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine that established a link between high sugar intake and heart disease deaths.

In a separate statement, Health Canada said it was reviewing the WHO’s draft recommendation.

The WHO’s move to update its dietary advice reflects the evolution of the science on sugar, which now more strongly indicates that sugar leads to obesity and tooth decay.

The proposal is likely to elicit a strong reaction from the packaged food industry – lobbyists convinced the U.S. government to threaten to withdraw funding for the WHO when it established the 10-per-cent threshold more than a decade ago – and possibly from health advocates who would prefer the agency definitively lower the limit to 5 per cent.

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If you drink a single can of pop a day, you’re consuming too much sugar.

That is the message from the World Health Organization, which on Wednesday unveiled new draft guidelines that say reducing sugar consumption to just 5 per cent of calories is the best way to achieve “additional health benefits.” The global public-health agency also renewed its call for governments around the world to recommend a firm limit of no more than 10 per cent of calories per day from sugar, a call Ottawa is so far refusing to heed.

The Canadian government is already under increasing pressure from health organizations to set guidelines on sugar consumption following the release of a study published last month in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine that established a link between high sugar intake and heart disease deaths.

In a separate statement, Health Canada said it was reviewing the WHO’s draft recommendation.

The WHO’s move to update its dietary advice reflects the evolution of the science on sugar, which now more strongly indicates that sugar leads to obesity and tooth decay.

The proposal is likely to elicit a strong reaction from the packaged food industry – lobbyists convinced the U.S. government to threaten to withdraw funding for the WHO when it established the 10-per-cent threshold more than a decade ago – and possibly from health advocates who would prefer the agency definitively lower the limit to 5 per cent.